(in that order) as being "prematurely degenerating" influences in this country. In his misanthropic diatribe, Rockwell seems rather confused, at first, about which to denigrate more, Jews or homosexuals. America has already been "perverted and rotted from within by the Jews," we are informed, but "homosexualism is the great sickness of our times... the ultimate degradation. In every civilization the imminent sign of collapse is when the generals start holding hands. If I catch any homosexuals around my outfit, I turn them in to the cops." But then, Rockwell offers the clarification that "the Jewish people are largely responsible for homosexualism. They go around saying it ought to be made legal and it's great. The mother of crappy poetry was Gertrude Stein, a queer Jewess. The father of crazy etc. etc., but statuary was we won't bore you. If Mr. Rockwell already suspects some of our current General Officers of holding hands, he doesn't mention who. Also unmentioned are those fiends Loxfinger and Bagelfinger, and that devilish agent Oy-Oy-7, who are of course at the bottom of the whole conspiracy.

WOETZEL ON

•

HOMOSEXUALITY LAWS

The article on "Do Our Homosexuality Laws Make Sense," by Robert K. Woetzel, in SATURDAY REVIEW for 10/9 is something of an editorial landmark, among other reasons, for its appearance in so prominent and influential a publication. Mr. Woetzel is a staff member of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and a former professor at New York University and Fordham University, and he expresses, as might be expected, some comprehensive and

24

balanced views on the theoretical questions involved. He supports, for example, the views of the late Judge Learned Hand, and the general recommendations of the American Law Institute and the new Kinsey Report, that sexual relations between consenting adults in private should not be subject to legal penalties.

Unfortunately, however, the article is misleading on certain factual matters. Serious exception must be taken, for example, to the statement that "most of the gay bars, bathhouses, and restaurants

are run by organized crime." This is, or at least has been, demonstrably true for New York City, and perhaps other densely populated East Coast centers, but there is no evidence whatever that it is true on a nation-wide and general scale. Also, the statement that "the influence of women in American society is the main cause for antihomosexual prejudices" is extremely debatable. The recent Harris survey of public opinion on non-conformist groups, reported in the WASHINGTON POST for 9/27, definitely indicates the contrary-that while 82% of American males think homosexuals are harmful to the nation, only 58% of the women think likewise. In addition, and not accounted for by Mr. Woetzel in this connection, is the fact that the anti-homosexual sanctions historically wielded by Church groups and by secular law in the West are almost entirely male-inspired; they stem from a violentlypatrist period of European history when women had very little influence in the shaping of moral and other social doctrines. Actually, both historically and currently, the preponderant weight of anti-homosexual prejudice is directed by males against males. On the other hand, heterosexual women seldom